 "Union Labour Secretary Sumita Dawra")
When the world is staring at geopolitical tensions, trade wars, and increasing anti-migration rhetoric in developed economies, global capability centres (GCCs) are emerging as an answer to issues on labour migration as a result of offshoring, which is bound to happen, says Labour Secretary Sumita Dawra in an interview to Shiva Rajora and Shreya Nandi.
GCCs are emerging as an alternative to labour mobility in new-age sectors such as artificial intelligence (AI), finance, electric vehicles, and renewables, says Dawra. Edited excerpts.
Increasing geopolitical tensions, anti-migration rhetoric in developed countries, and tariff wars are making the world protectionist. Do you see this affecting the demand for Indian workers abroad and their mobility being affected?
There is labour scarcity in many developed countries like Australia, Germany, Finland, and Japan. Labour scarcity is there also in West Asia, which has traditionally employed a lot of Indian workers. Sectors like information technology (IT), engineering, and green jobs are leading the trend.
So global capability centres (GCCs) are emerging as an answer to issues around labour migration because such rhetoric would lead to the offshoring of certain aspects, especially in sectors like IT, knowledge processing, finance, and the services sector. India has more than more than 1,700 GCCs, and that is poised to increase to more than 2,400 by 2030. If there is labour shortage, the companies will offshore that work. And these GCCs are what I see as an alternative to labour mobility.
Apart from this, we are working with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on developing a framework for mutual recognition of skills and qualifications for G20 countries. Also, we are inking bilateral migration and mobility partnership agreements. This will enable young people from India to travel to these countries safely and grab work opportunities there.
Don’t you think the current protectionist environment can lead to a sort of reverse migration of Indian workers? And GCCs will cater for a little portion of the Indian workforce that is highly skilled and highly paid, and is engaged in cutting-edge sectors. What about sectors like construction, health care, and agriculture, which require workers to be present at the site of work?
I do not see a reverse migration happening on a huge scale because Indians contribute to the economies of many countries and our huge demographic dividend (65 per cent of the population below 35) and an aging population in these countries augur well for labour mobility.
Every country wants to grow. I am confident about the employability of our people. This is what the QS World Future Skills and Economic Survey and India Skills Report have shown. Whether it’s AI, green jobs, or these traditional sectors, demand for Indian workers is going to remain there.
During our talks while signing free-trade agreements (FTAs), a lot of countries have often raised the issue about standards on labour and social security in India not being up to the mark. How is India dealing with this issue, which has often surfaced as part of the modern trade issues basically, along with the issues of sustainability?
It’s important that when we do FTAs, we are able to give the perception of “decent working conditions” in our supply chains. That’s where we have engaged the ILO to talk to our businesses. We invited the ILO to produce evidence to showcase decent work in the supply chains of GCCs. In February, we had this forum, where we invited the ILO’s director general, and asked our businesses to showcase how they are showing responsible business conduct when it comes to labour, labour welfare, and the education of the children of workers. So, it also depends on a case-by-case basis as well.
What has been the progress on the rollout of the labour codes?
Nearly 34 states and Union Territories have pre-published draft rules and it has been done in a harmonised and standardised manner. Throughout last year, we held regional meetings and national workshops and asked them to complete the process before March 31. It is clear businesses do not want to deal with different rules across different states. The intent of the government has been about reforms and we hope the new codes will be rolled out soon.
